


Digressions on Samara

by Scutter



Series: Digressions [9]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-28
Updated: 2014-03-12
Packaged: 2018-01-14 03:02:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1250314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scutter/pseuds/Scutter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Samara finally figured it out."</p><p>A series of ficlets about Samara. Thank you to Becca for this prompt.</p><p>Chapter 1 - Samara reaches a realisation that will change her life forever.<br/>Chapter 2 - Samara ponders the romances of the crew around her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Justicar

Samara finally figured it out. And when she did, she felt her legs go weak, sat down hard at the kitchen table and held onto the edge, lest she fall over. 

Ardat-Yakshi. Heaven help them all.

The four recent deaths had been no simple murders. But she’d thought they were, at first, had still thought so when she’d discovered that one of her own daughters was responsible. And she’d called the police, determined to put an end to her spree of serial-killing, determined that justice would be served and she would be held to answer for these senseless acts of violence.

But this... she’d never imagined that Morinth was not just a killer, but one of the worst menaces ever to haunt the galaxy. 

Her own daughter.

Ardat-Yakshi.

She picked up the data pad again, the latest report sent in from C-Sec. The nature of the deaths. The forensic investigation.

The irrefutable conclusion.

Ardat-Yakshi were insatiable, cunning, all the harder to find because their victims went with them willingly. They killed through seduction, not force.

Samara sat at the table, head in her hands, for a long time. Played over her life in her head again and again, her maiden years, her desire for children, for a family, her daughters’ early years, teenage years... and then the first inklings that something was amiss.

And what of her other two daughters? Were they also affected? Would she have to kill her whole family?

She was just a mother, a civilian, not even a commando. She had no skills to deal with such a menace.

But she had been the one to unleash it on the galaxy. What in the world was she supposed to do?

The sun was setting on Thessia when Samara finally reached a decision. She stood up and looked around the little house she lived in, feeling the cool weight of her decision settle around her. She would never come back here, to her house with the hand-embroidered cushions and the cups her mother had given her and the collage on the wall that Morinth had made for her when she was just 13. Excellent artwork, even for one so young.

There was only one solution, only one way forward that would assuage the guilt gnawing at her, that would teach her the skills to stop an Ardat-Yakshi, the strength to look her own daughter in the eye and pull the trigger, knowing there was no possible way to save her.

She packed a bag with the bare essentials, sent a message to her employer resigning from her job, and forced herself not to look back as she strode out the door for the last time.

An Ardat-Yakshi was loose in the galaxy. And she would become the Justicar that would end its reign of terror.


	2. Romance

Samara finally figured it out. She had wondered, for months, watching Tali whenever Shepard was around. Listening to the change in her tone of voice when she spoke to him, or of him. She had watched the soft sighs, the droops of Tali’s shoulders, heard the hesitations in her replies. And she had wondered, for so long, why she never said anything about the way she felt.

And then Samara had left the Normandy, resigned to leaving this one mystery unsolved, and had put it from her mind.

Until an unexpected invitation from Shepard to attend a party on the Citadel. 

She’d come, a little perplexed that someone would actually desire her presence at such an event. But it would be good to see Shepard again, to hear how the battle for the galaxy was progressing, so she had come…

And that’s when she’d met Kaidan.

And that’s when she’d figured it out.

Her already strong respect for Tali went up a notch, knowing what she had sacrificed for Kaidan and Shepard’s happiness. Admiration that she had not sought to fulfil her own desires when it would have been so easy, under such difficult circumstances, to drop a few hints, make herself available, be a shoulder to lean on…

Kaidan, on the other hand, Samara had figured out immediately. He was a straight forward sort of man, all about loyalty and integrity, and easily forgiven for the decisions he had to make when the two values came into conflict.

It wasn’t until the next morning that Samara figured the rest of it out, though. The way Garrus’s gaze followed Tali around the room. The slight hesitation in Tali’s replies. The lift of her shoulders when Garrus stepped through the doorway. Ah, so perhaps her heart was not broken, but merely bruised. And for all her dedication to the Code, Samara fully understood the desired of other individuals, of other species.

She smiled privately to herself as she left the apartment. She and Shepard would meet again, she was sure. And when they did, she expected a full report of this newest endeavour into romance. Tali was a warrior, proud and true. And there was no better match for her in the galaxy than a man who could stand as her equal.


End file.
